Over 100 Cops Viciously Raid Family’s 4th of July Party

July 11, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Last week we ran this article about the Revolution Club Chicago facing off with the police, and the community refusing to side with the police. In the article, we mentioned that the police threatened people. Since then there have been a number of reprisals. This is an account of one of them: an interview with one member of the family whose party was raided (referred to here as XX).

Revolution: Describe what you were saying about what its been like, what happened at the party. However you were just talking to me. Go ahead.

XX: The night of the party, like, those were my children. It was my son that got arrested. Those were my nieces and nephews, and when I left they were all out here just on the porch. They weren’t in the street. They weren’t doing anything. As a matter of fact, when I left my grandchildren were still out here because they was still popping fireworks.

So when I left, I thought everything was good. Because I mean if I thought things were going to get out of hand I would have said something. I would have probably actually stopped the party myself. But everything was good, like I said. The family over there, they were outside. The family down the street, they were outside and the family down on that end, they were outside. So quite naturally the block is filled with people because it’s the 4th of July. We all grew up on this block so we all know each other. We’re all familiar with each other.

So, it’s one thing to come for somebody who like you mighta got a call that somebody had a gun and you want to come for them, that’s fine you know. If you are going to do your job, do your job.

But I’ve never seen three districts of police officers come on the scene for a party. I’ve never seen that. I hate to have to say that it was over a hundred white officers and only four Black officers. And they counted the Black officers. So when I get here it was like “Look Auntie, they all white.” I think the commander was a Black officer. But even my daughter said, “When they came up here and they was trying to, they got my son. You already got the person who you were looking for so why were you in my house? Why did you kick in my bathroom door. My bathroom door?”

My grandkids was inside in the bedroom. They want to go in the bedroom. My daughter say, with they tasers out and she was telling them, you know, “My babies are in there please.” My great nieces and nephews were in there and I had three of my grandchildren that were in there. My daughter was begging and pleading with them not to go in the bedroom. They kept telling her, “We don’t give a fuck! We don’t give a fuck. Shut the fuck up and we don’t give a fuck.” But you are in our house. And you saying this about my grandchildren. I have never witnessed anything like that.

[Referencing something that happened at another time] Now right over across that street, my son was shot 11 times. Right there. We was standing right there and two guys came through that driveway and I saw them first. I had to run and duck. I went that way, my son went and ran that way; they followed my son. They chased my son over in that gangway. He tripped and fell and the guy was over him shooting him. He has eleven bullets all in this area (points to stomach area) of his body.

So I don’t agree with my son having a gun, that’s not something I condone. I don’t agree. I don’t think he should have had a gun, I really don’t but he feel like he need it for his own protection because even at my own house I have been shot and almost killed.

But the way the police came that night [July 4th] they were like the gang bangers that night. And I feel like they came to kill and destroy. Now on the videos that I saw there was an incident over there. They dragged my niece down the stairs and down the block. My neighbor lives right down there and she videotaped it. She say, “Poor Y [gives her name],” they grabbed her, Not only did they drag her down the stairs. They dragged her down the block! My nephew, her brother, she was trying to protect her brother; he has two knots on his each side of his head from where they beat him up out here. A little boy was videotaping right over there against that fence. He was live on Facebook. They knocked him out.

And I say the news will come if a police officer got shot, the news would have been over here in droves. And then it’s, “Oh my god in Englewood [a South Side neighborhood] a police officer just got shot”. They like to, um what is the word, I’m looking for the word. Well, anyway, they like to media hype things up like gangs are over here. There’s no gangs. There is not a gang on this block. Not a gang member. Are they all cliqued up? Yes. But are they in a gang? No. There is no more gangs in the city of Chicago. They’re just a bunch of kids that get together and form their own groups and so everybody want to label them gang bangers. They’re not gang bangers. They’re my nieces and nephews.

That the police does not give them a opportunity like coming over here and taking the kids’ rim. What purpose was that?

Revolution: Describe that again because you were telling me about that. [She had described putting up a basketball hoop for the kids to play and the police taking it down.]

XX: The very next day, like after the commander came out. The commander came out the next day to try to smooth things over. But he came with Black officers. He didn’t come not with one white cop. And my brother said, the day after, he said it was early in the morning, and the police came, they came with some kind of dump truck or something and they loaded up the rim and they put it in the truck and they took it away. They didn’t ask did it belong to somebody or can you remove it from this street. They just came a got it and took it.

So now our 10-12 kids that live on this block, like they’re not out right now, if the basketball rim was up, when you walked up the street you would of saw the kids out here playing basketball. But now they can’t play basketball, so they probably in the house playing video games or something. They all have bikes but they prefer to play basketball over riding they bikes. Even the girls. So they gather right here and they play basketball. But they can’t even do that anymore because the rim that we got for them, that we put together to give them, they (the police) took it away from em. Why?

And I guess my other question would be, “Where’s our alderman, where’s the representation for us? When you knew there was 300 officers on one block, you didn’t have a problem with that? You don’t want to come out and investigate?”

All we trying to do is live over here safely. I mean, its bad enough we have to watch where we go. You see those vacant lots over there? I called 311 a few times to try to get the grass and the trees cut, because if somebody wants to come over here and even shoot at the three of us [referring to me, her, and another woman sitting on her porch] they can come right to that grass where you can’t see them and start shooting. And imagine how it look at night time. So it’s scary. So I’m calling and I’m saying please come and cut this. They haven’t come and cut it. Oh, if it’s not over five inches [it is way higher than 5 inches] tall they won’t come out and cut it. But a shooter can stand right there, and shoot at us right here. You know I just want people to care a little bit. You know people scared of these neighborhoods, but they not doing anything to help the neighborhood.

So now that you took the kids rim, where our kids supposed to go and play. Cuz we can’t send them to the park because it’s dangerous at the park. The police only police the park at what, 9, 10 o clock when the park is closed. Not during the day when it’s open and filled with people. You don’t see the police. Unless they riding by and they may see somebody standing outside selling loose cigarettes or something. They may harass them.

But I just think. I’m actually traumatized. I came home to a broke door that I couldn’t lock. I came home to a bathroom door that’s broken down, because, what was in the bathroom? You had the person that you were looking for, you never had a warrant to come to this address. The call you received never said this address. They told you that... that person was in the street and he had a gun. That’s what you said they said. You never said, “Oh we got a call at this address [gives the address] to come and you know and somebody had a gun.”

Revolution: What your nephew said that the police said to him, was they looked on Facebook for the biggest party, that it was preplanned. They looked for the biggest party and figured, I think, it's a big gang party or whatever, and that’s why they came.

XX: I believe so because my sister said that she was on another street [names the street.] Now I got family that live on that street as well. So they were having a 4th of July party too. And when actually I rode past there it looked like they was having a good time and again my sister say they went over there first but they didn’t go over there like they did here. They just went over there in the cars and they stopped the party. And I heard a couple people got arrested over there too. I don’t really know what happened but it was like that block and then they came over here. But they didn’t even come in police cars. They had parked their cars on the outside of the block and they walked. And they came through vacant lots and they came through gangways. For what? For a party that had maybe a hundred people out in the street? I just don’t understand.

And again, I been living here over 40 years. And I’ve never seen anything like that. Even when my son got shot they didn’t come by the boatload. Maybe four or five cars. But they didn’t come by the boatload. You know and no one [referring to when her son was shot] ever came back to ask me any questions. That very same night my son was shot 11 times, one of his very good friends, that I hadn’t seen in 10 years, live in Minnesota, he just came up to visit and he was killed in the back of my house. And they never came to ask to ask me anything. “Did you see what he looked like? Do you know anything?” No questions at all. Even when I was at the hospital with my son, they didn’t ask me no questions.

But as soon as we’re having a good time, and there’s nothing going on. Then here we go. You wanna come in like they were the gang bangers that night. They truly was. They were the gang bangers that night. My son said, “They were like all young, look they just came from out the military,” he was like, “they were hungry,” he was like, “they were waiting like they wanted something to happen.” My friend that lives over on the block, she said like, “I was trying to keep the peace but the police was like ‘man, lets move now, do what I say,’ cursing them out, not caring.” And my feelings are hurt because I been living here over 40 years and I mean I used to be a CAPS [community policing group] member. I used to go to CAPs meetings. Like my brother, he’s been political since he was a young guy, cuz my father was like the precinct captain and so my father was political too. So my brother has always been involved with the community.

And both us is like a little... I feel violated. But I am a little traumatized behind that, too. And then for you to ride up and down the block and now I’m being... having the light shown on me just for sitting on my porch. It’s just not right. [Here she is referring to that fact that since the raid on her house, the police ride along her street and if they see her sitting on the porch they shine a spotlight on her in an effort to harass and intimidate her.] And like I said, the news, if something happened with the police or somebody gets shot, the news is over here really, really fast. But you had over a hundred officers out here, that was intimidating people and there was no news coverage about it all. But I seen like 15 different Facebook videos. You know what I’m saying, it’s just not right and I’m trying to do something about it.

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